On growth of double cosets in hyperbolic groups

Abstract

Let [Formula: see text] be a hyperbolic group, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] be subgroups of [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] be the growth function of the double cosets [Formula: see text]. We prove that the behavior of [Formula: see text] splits into two different cases. If [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are not quasiconvex, we obtain that every growth function of a finitely presented group can appear as [Formula: see text]. We can even take [Formula: see text]. In contrast, for quasiconvex subgroups [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] of infinite index, [Formula: see text] is exponential. Moreover, there exists a constant [Formula: see text], such that [Formula: see text] for all big enough [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the growth function of the group [Formula: see text]. So, we have a clear dichotomy between the quasiconvex and non-quasiconvex case.